Veg About: Entire Harvest Eaten By Human-Sized Bug

This year the Bug has really got involved in vegie production. He's been planting, watching, picking and eating all our crops. He has a new enthusiasm for eating beans and tomatoes since picking them for himself from the garden.

"Growing their own' is a really effective way to increase the range of vegies in your kids' diet. Vegie growing is great for the health of our bodies, our minds and our home and wider environment. It's also a good way for children to observe natural processes like germination, growing, ripening, decaying and so on.

At the moment we grow our vegies in self-watering pots. They're great during water-restrictions and are suitable for gardens, courtyards, balconies, even windowsills and doorsteps. Even the smallest apartment or harshest climate can accomodate a saucer of cress seeds on a windowsill.

Here are some good vegies for little kids to grow:

• Cherry tomatoes: our favorite is 'Sweet Bite', which grows well in Victoria. We grew ours from a seedling this year.
• Green beans: they're the Duplo (TM) of seeds, big and easy to grow. You can get short 'bush' beans or climbing varieties. The climbing ones are space-efficient and are supposed to crop over a longer period, but the Bug planted two bush beans this season and we've been picking them for weeks. We'll definitely plant them again next season.
• zucchini: they have big seeds and big male and female flowers, so it's easy to observe the fertilisation process.
• capsicum: my Bug has been watching patiently as they ripen from green to red. We grew ours from a seedling. 
• Cress seeds on a saucer: pop them near the kitchen window and watch them germinate. You could put a few saucers in different places and watch how the different levels of light affect their growth, colour and taste. 
• if you have space, pop in a pumpkin for fun! The giant orange ones aren't great for eating, but kids could use it as a seat.